Good Foods for Betta Fish
Choosing a Healthy Betta Food Diet - Even for Picky Fish
Betta fish love to eat, but they are also notoriously picky. Luckily, there are several different nutritional options for betta fish, and most betta experts agree that variety is the healthiest bet. For best results, try a combination diet.
Healthy Foods for Betta Fish
Pellet food for bettas, like TopFin's Betta Bits or Hikari's betta pellet food, is touted as being the most nutritious and well-balanced diet for bettas and even enhances their color, but too much of a good thing might do some harm. It's okay to feed a betta 3-4 pellets twice a day, or 4-5 pellets once a day (more or less, according to the instructions on the package).
But a diet of only pellet food can cause a betta to suffer from constipation or swim bladder disorder (see Spotting and Treating Common Betta Diseases). And overfeeding is definitely an issue for those who are just getting started with betta fish, because bettas can't be trusted to stop eating when they've had their fill!
Supplemental Betta Foods
Because bettas tend to eat a lot of one kind of food, it's important to supplement with other kinds of food, including:
Freeze-dried foods: Freeze-dried brine shrimp and bloodworms are an easy and quick way to vary the betta's diet. And a container can last a very long time.
Frozen betta foods: Bettas love frozen bloodworms, frozen tubifex worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp and more. These foods come in little cubes that can be broken apart for individual feedings. Since each cube is much more than any one betta can eat in a feeding (though they'd happily die trying), the owner of Nippyfish.net recommends placing the cube inside a plastic sandwich bag, banging it lightly with a hammer, using a toothpick to remove a portion for that day's feeding and then storing the rest of the cube in the freezer inside the plastic bag.
Gel-based betta foods: Tetra makes a gel food for bettas called Nature's Delica that some betta breeders recommend. This betta food includes whole bloodworms or brine shrimp in a nutrient-rich gel, and the gel comes in small packets that are easy to squeeze into the betta's tank.
Live betta foods: Living white worms, black worms, brine shrimp or other live foods can usually be bought from a local pet store or ordered online. Since bettas are carnivorous fish who are accustomed to eating live foods, the thrill of the hunt might be a nice change of pace for them about once every week or two.
When needed, other foods can be offered to bettas. For instance, if the betta has swim bladder disorder or seems constipated, it can be fasted for a day or two and then fed a small piece of cooked green pea (about the size of the betta's eye) without the skin.
What (and How) to Feed a Picky Betta
With all that variety, some bettas will choose one food to the exclusion of all others - for instance, rejecting betta pellets outright and eating only freeze-dried bloodworms. The betta may just not recognize the pellet (or flakes) as food.
Try feeding the fish only the rejected food for a week and fasting it the rest of the time, or soaking the food in water for a few minutes before offering it to make it more palatable. Of course, remove the uneaten food after a few minutes so it won't decay and release toxic ammonia, leading to dangerous water conditions. And then try again later!
Most of the time, bettas can be trained to recognize and eat new foods even if they spit them out or swam right past them at first.
Feeding Picky Betta Fish a Good Diet
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